KARACHI: Sindh’s number of daily COVID-19 infections remained almost unchanged for the second day running on July 19 when authorities in the government registered 889 cases, with 19 related deaths, compared to 880 confirmed cases of July 18.

Earlier, a spell of similar case reporting was witnessed across the province from July 14 to 17 when numbers ranged from 1,151 to 1,170, which was held as sign a sign of relief among the health managers.

However, keen observers attributed such trend to decreased numbers of tests undertaken by COVID testing laboratories across the province.

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his routine statement on COVID-19 status on July 19, shared that in all 7,977 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours, out of which 889 were found positive for coronavirus, taking the number of confirmed cases to 113,007 for Sindh.

He further said that as many as 18,977 people were receiving treatments at hospitals, isolation centres and homes.

“Of the 743 patients admitted at hospitals, 525 were in critical condition, while 74 required ventilator support,” he added.

According to official data, there are about 25 COVID-19 testing laboratories across the province, with a collective capacity of performing 9,600 tests.

Karachi reported the maximum of 395 cases on July 19, followed by Hyderabad (59), Ghotki (42), Mirpurkhas (32), Khairpur (25), Shaheed Benazirabad (22), Shikarpur (21), Sanghar (19), Larkana (19), Jamshoro (16), Dadu (15), Jacobabad (14), Sukkur (13), Kashmore (12), Thatta (11), Kanbar Shahdadkot (11), Naushero Feroz (11), Matiari (10), Tando Allahyar (8), Sujawal (5), Badin (5) and Umerkot (4).

No details of infected persons who died during the last 24 hours was available as neither the Chief Minister’s statement nor the Sindh health department made a disclosure about it. A total 1,993 infected persons have died in Sindh so far.

On the other hand, a Sindh health department website updated the number of fatalities as 2,016 around 8 pm on July 19. This website showed the total COVID cases of Karachi as 74,647–PNFS